Training Tips: Q & A

Hello everyone,

This week I am going to answer a question from one of our fellow horse enthusiast, Renice de Groot!

Renice asked: “Ed, Stride has reached a concrete wall in his training. He rears everytime his hoof catches a ground pole or refuses them completly. It only recently started”

Here is what I will say to you Renice! We all know that horses can be interesting creatures and they can come up with all sorts of funny things to keep us on our toes.

The first thing to do in a situation like this is to think about the horse that you are riding. What are your horses mental tendencies? Is he busy minded, quick footed, nervous, easily spooked or a silly goofball? Analyzing your horses mental inclinations will help you better determine the best approach to take in order to correct the problem. There is never truly a one size fits all solution.

I happen to remember your horse Stride. He is an off the track thoroughbred with lots of spark and energy. These types of horses are easily excited and not always the easiest to calm down if anything happens suddenly. There is honestly no telling what is causing Stride to resist crossing the poles, but there is on thing that I can bet; when he approaches the poles, his mind is racing a million kilometers per second. This is resulting in the rearing that he is demonstrating.

The best way to combat this behavior is to simply redirect his attention. Due to his inclination to be more energetic, you have to work with his natural inclination and give him something else to do. Long before he approaches the poles, he will give you signals that he would prefer to go somewhere else to avoid going over the poles. His mind has already left YOU and focused on his fear of crossing the poles. In a last ditch effort to get out of crossing the poles, he simply goes up. You have to listen to what your horse is telling you. Do not wait until you get to the poles to correct this.

At the first hint that he is focusing on the poles and not on going where you tell him, remind him that you are up there! You can trot tight tiny circles, turn on the haunches, back up or a number of other exercises to remind him that you are there and that YOU are in control. Once you have done this, forget all about it and simply proceed toward the poles again with confidence. You want to act as if nothing ever happened to give your horse the opportunity to trust you and give him the chance to do what you want. You may have to repeat this process one hundred times, but if you are consistent, Stride will overcome his fear and start crossing the poles with ease!

Best of Luck to you!

Reflecting on memories from the rookie days of my horse training career, sure gives me plenty of opportunities to laugh at myself. I messed up quite a number of horses simply because I just didn’t know any better. As my grandfather always told me “No one is born knowing! You don’t know how much you don’t know, until you learn what you didn’t know before, then you will realize that you really didn’t know what you thought you knew”. The more that I grow as a trainer and overall horseman, I continuously find that my grandfather’s nugget of wisdom applies directly to me. I have another 2 year old story that I would like to share with you all.

One of Many Horses Ruined by Yours Truly

Many years ago, maybe back in 2006, I was contacted by the friend of a friend to come and start her 2 year old stallion. They thought he could be a big time pleasure stallion in the Michigan area and decided that the first step would be to get on him. They heard about me from someone and it was rumored that I could get a young horse going pretty well, so they decided to give me a call. After the women repeated to me all that she had been told, I will admit, that her comments caused my ego to swell just a bit. I told the woman, you bet I can do that for you! When do you want me there?

Armed with an ego that needed it’s own seat in my pickup truck, I headed off to Dowagiac, Michigan to turn this colt into something special. There I was, in the cold Michigan winter showing up to start this colt. The lady brought out a pad, synthetic saddle, a bosal and said “there ya go”. She went back inside and left me to my work. I was pretty good at getting the saddle on a horse, but as truth would have it, that’s where my skill level stopped. I didn’t know it yet, but I was about to find out!

I had never seen or used a bosal before and knew nothing about how they worked, but my ego wouldn’t allow me to admit it. I headed to the makeshift round pen to saddle and buck the colt out. I got him saddled, climbed on and he did nothing at all. I was a bit surprised, but relieved at the same time. Convinced that this was a gentle colt, I figured that I would just ride him around easy and get off. I clucked, kicked and nothing happened. I pulled to the left, then to the right and still he didn’t take a single step. Next, I got a handy whip, pulled to the left, clucked and gave him a good spank. Finally we went on a few steps and before you knew it, I was up to a trot. I guess he got tired of going in one direction quickly because he just kept turning and going the other way. I would pull on the bosal to send him back the other direction but the colt would just push through me and take me where he wanted to go. This continued on for a while and the harder he pushed through me, the more I pulled, spanked and kicked! Pretty soon, I had a very angry and annoyed colt that was dripping in sweat trying to bite my legs in the middle of a muddy round pen. I couldn’t exactly say mission accomplished!

I hopped back in the truck for the day with my friend to head home and spent the entire drive telling her how bad that colt is. “I don’t know what’s wrong with that colt! That lady needs to can him and get something else!” I said repeatedly. If you remember my last article on building your horse from the ground up, I must judge this case according to my own words. I said that these babies come as a blank piece of property waiting to be built into a wonderful masterpiece. You lay the foundation and build upon that. The house that stands at the end of it is solely your doing! The results I gained from that day’s work were not a reflection at all on that colt’s mind or ability, but rather a reflection on me! I had attempted to construct a building with no foundation. It’s no wonder that everything went downhill very quickly. What critical step did I miss? Ground driving!

Ground Driving

The art of ground driving has become an excellent tool that I keep in my arsenal. I don’t ever put the first ride on a young horse, these days, without putting them through this. Ground driving is much more than teaching your horse to go left and right from the ground if you pay attention. I use it to assess the horses attitude as well as finding out how the horse will respond when a little pressure is applied.

What you feel from the horses on the end of your driving lines will tell you:

1.) How light he is on his feet

2.) If your horse favors leaning right or left

3.) Whether your horse will want to hide behind the vertical or be pushy

4.) If the horse says “yes sir” easily or decides “nope, that’s not going to happen” more easily5

5.) How easy is will be to get body control

What do I need to ground drive my horse?

You will need:

1.) a rope halter of your choice (if your horse is too soft in a rope halter, you can go to a normal halter)

2.)two long lines

3.) a lunge whip

4.) determination to help your horse understand the next phase of his career

Next week, we are going to go in depth about the exercises to be done on the long lines! Be sure that you have all of the above equipment ready, and stay tuned for the continuation of this article next week!

Starting young horses under saddle can be an unsettling experience for the novice horse person. I remember when I first began to try my hand with the young ones. I wasn’t a trainer in those days but I had been competing in rodeos. I worked the steer wrestling event and had started riding bareback horses. I thought that I knew quite a bit so I would kindly lend a hand to friends and get their mounts lined out if they misbehaved.

One day, a friend came to me and said “I have this two year old that I got as a gift. I really want to start riding him, but I’m afraid to put on the first ride. Can you please ride him for me?”. I quickly reminded myself of how I had fixed a few older horses before and surely riding this young horse would be no different! After all, he had been handled and really loved people. So I said to her “no problem, when do you want me to start him?”

My First Two Year Old Experience

I showed up to the farm and there he was in the paddock with two other horses. He was a big 16 hand appendix quarter horse sorrel gelding and he walked right up to me. There was no round pen on the property and given my lack of experience, I didn’t think anything of it. I put the halter on and said “bring me the saddle, this will be a piece of cake”. I walked him to the middle of the paddock and put the pad on. He stood there like a perfect angel. Next, I put the saddle on and he didn’t bother to flinch. I thought….I am making myself look really good right about now so I tightened up the cinch! He stood there and looked at me, took a deep breathe and just dropped his head. This was getting ready to be great I thought. Starting a two year old is easy!

“I’m about to get on”, I yelled. My foot entered the stirrup and I hoisted myself up. All of a sudden, the horse that had been so quiet came to life! Before I could swing a leg over, he had just about jumped over the moon and I didn’t book a return ticket to come back with him!! It must have been the sound heard around the county! “BOOM!!!” was the noise I made hitting the hard ground in the dirt paddock and “Oooooh MY BACK” was the sound I was making as I was laid there! When I picked myself up and caught my breath, I got up with a different opinion of just how easy starting this two year old was really going to be!

That was the most difficult horse that I have ever started up to this very day. Where in the world did I go wrong? I think back to that experience often, and I finally have an answer. My mistake was not 100% due to my lack of experience. The mistake was having a lack of experience coupled together with having absolutely NO plan!

I did not understand that being given a young horse to start is much like being a contractor hired to build a house from the ground up. There is nothing to fix or to remodel. There is only a beautiful piece of property waiting for the proper foundation to be laid and construction to begin. In order to do this properly, you must have a plan!

Much of the defeat that we experience on the backs of our young horses could be resolved if we simply spent more time on the ground before riding them. This week, I want to give you a few tips of how to go about getting your horse going smoothly!

3 Tips for two year old success

1.) Come into your sessions with definite and clear goals! Why?

-Your prospect has begun nursery school. His attention span is not developed enough to focus while you are feeling out your way. Keep it short, sweet and to the point.

-Respect from your horse is earned, not automatic. Would you respect a teacher that forced you to come to class and floundered through each class period? I didn’t think so.

2.) Know exactly what you want!

-Not knowing exactly what you want is a bit like fighting with a shadow. It’s not fair to your horse, and no one is really going to win.

3.)Say what you mean and mean what you say!

-Your prospect needs to know that saying “no” isn’t the best of options. This can be down without intimidation. Simply increase the pressure of your request and release the pressure once the horse tries to give to what you want.

Where do I start from then?

You start by laying the foundation and that foundation is forward motion! Any construction that we do on these two year olds will be building on the forward motion that we have established from the beginning. Nothing is done apart from it. I begin this process by free lunging in the round pen. Free lunging could be an aimless process of simply wearing your horse’s energy level down, or it can be the beginning of establishing a good work relationship.

What am I after when doing this?

For a young horse to start riding well, he must be able to move his feet. In order for his feet to go anywhere, he has to be responsive to my cluck. He needs to know that my cluck means let’s go now, not later. The only thing that I will need to get this done is myself and a handy dandy lunge whip for reinforcement.

The very first thing you want to do is step behind you horses shoulder, ribcage and position yourself directly across from your horses hip. The pressure from you merely standing at the horses hip should be enough to drive your horse forward. Notice in this image above, you can see my horse, Enrique, owned by Q Stud Farm of Potchefstroom, is being driven forward.

If your horse doesn’t move forward, simply cluck. If your cluck isn’t enough to drive your horse forward, then crack your lunge whip. If the cracking of the lunge whip isn’t enough, then you will have to put the lunge to his backside. This isn’t about intimidation, but clear communication. Your working relationship with your horse cannot be built on the basis on unclear communication.

Once your horse goes forward, you can back off the pressure. The release of pressure let’s your horse know, yes I did the correct thing. You must be able to keep your horse forward at all three gaits. Just because his legs are moving, doesn’t mean he is actually going forward. Your needs to move with intent.

When I want to change directions, I change the direction of where the pressure is coming from. If pressure from standing towards the hip is driving the horse forward, then stepping in front of the horses shoulder will drive him back the other way. Sometimes, when you first begin changing directions, the youngsters can get a bit confused. That is okay, just be consistent. Stay in the same spot and allow the horse figure out where to go.

Once your horse figures out to draw back and change directions, don’t wait around twiddling your thumbs. Get going and send him out. Notice in the middle picture that Enrique is loading up his hindquarters.

In picture number three, his front end is lifted and he is powering out into the new direction. Depending on the type of horse that you have, this could come very slowly or very quickly. Either way, be consistent and know what you are after. I recommend getting the forward motion buttons working properly at the free lunge before attempting any other progressive steps. This is going to cause your horse to become focused on YOU! This is the basis to building a good working relationship from day #1.

Stay tuned for next weeks article- Starting young horses: Building from the ground up- Pt. 2 (Ground Driving)

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It was my second time to South Africa and my first time to do a clinic at Q Stud Ranch in Potchefstroom. As I am there giving lessons, Madre Colyn says to me “if you have time, can you hop on our stallion Sail and just tell us what you think?”. Anyone that knows me will know that I’m always willing to lend a helping hand, so I said “sure thing”. I had heard a little about their imported stallion Sail on Frozen Shadow, but had never seen him ridden and didn’t exactly know what to expect. So when I got a moment, we got him all saddled and I just grabbed the closest thing to a mild bridle that I could find and put it on him. Next thing you know, I was off to the arena to give him a whirl.

There I am riding around and the stallions owner, Ian Colyn, was watching very intensely. I put the stallion through the normal paces that I would any other bona fide reining horse. He felt a bit rusty because he hadn’t been worked in a very long time, but he sure felt like he knew his job to me. He circled, spun, and stopped really well. Before I got off and put the stallion away, I looked over at Ian Colyn and said with a big smile, “Man, this horse here is really really broke” and I went on to cool him down.

A few weeks later, during a conversation with Madre, an incident that I found as hilarious came to my attention. She told me that her husband Ian, came to her and said “I think we have a big big problem….Ed told me that Sail was really really broke”. Madre didn’t know exactly what that meant nor what to do about it, but she just knew that for a horse to be “broke” couldn’t be a good thing! Madre was distraught and looked for an answer. She phoned her good friend Colette that originally brought the stallion into South Africa and cried to her saying, “Colette what do we do? Ed came and rode our stallion. He said that Sail was really really broke, what are we going to do with him now?”. Colette laughs hysterically and says “Uhm…well that is actually a compliment, especially coming from an American trainer! It means that he is well trained and really knows his job”!

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Since I have started coming to South Africa and familiarizing myself with the relatively close knit equine community, I feel compelled to write this article. A budding interest in the western riding disciplines have steadily been on the rise in the countries of South Africa, Namibia and even Botswana. I would like to help the western horse enthusiasts of these countries grow richly in the knowledge of what a western horse is supposed to be. Allow this article to serve as a brief introduction to understanding what the finished or “broke” western horse is.

There are many misconceptions about what a western horse is. To some, when the word “western” in mentioned, as far as riding disciplines are concerned, thoughts like fast, dangerous and out of control are often attributed, but a true western horse is quite the opposite of the previously used adjectives. I am going to make a very bold statement, but one that I feel is a statement of the utmost truth. Finished western horses are the Cadillac sedan’s of the equine world. Just like a cadillac sedan, the finished western horse whether it be a reining, pleasure, or cutting horse, will let you sit back and enjoy your drive with minimal effort.

Much different than the classical english disciplines where constant communication is happening during each maneuver, our approach tends to be a bit different. When we have a finished horse, we simply want to be able to clearly communicate to our horse what maneuver is next on the list to perform. Once the proper cue has been given, it is time for the rider to get out of the horses way and allow the horse to do what it has spent years learning how to do oh so well. I have had the privilege to help a few english riders try their hand at riding a finished pleasure or reining horse for the first time. They were astounded at how much happier (and less cranky) these horses were when they were left alone to do the job they spent many years learning to do. I have started to tell my students “take your horse to it and let him do it”. Getting a horse to that point doesn’t happen overnight however and can take years of consistent and methodical training.

How do I train my horse to be a finished western horse?

If you want to have a finished western horse, you must first decide what type of western horse you will want your finished horse to be! There are many events that fall under the category of western (reining, cutting, pleasure, trail, ranch & etc) and though the tack looks fairly similar to the spectator, most of our western riding disciplines can be very different from each other. You will need to first determine before you begin to ride the horse, what the horse is best suited for. Yes there are exceptions to every rule, but generally it isn’t recommended invest time and resources to train a horse with racing bloodlines for the western pleasure just as it isn’t recommended to invest in making a pleasure bred horse into a cutting horse. A knowledge of stock horse bloodlines and their associated disciplines, or at least access to all breed pedigree and google will definitely serve as a tool to help you determine what your horse is bred to do. The goal is not to simply have a horse in the arena wearing western tack, but to have a horse in the arena that can perform to the standard of that western discipline and excel with you at the reins! Matching your horse to a discipline that it was bred to do increases your chances of coming out of the training process with that finished cadillac that will let you cruise through the show ring and into the winner’s circle.

The next thing on the list is to begin to ride your prospect from the very first ride with the end result in mind. If you lack the knowledge of how to reach your desired end goal, I would strongly recommend investing in a knowledgeable trainer to take your horse to the level at which you can show it successfully.

Here are a few quick rules of thumb:

Pick a direction for your horse

Understand that your prospect may have raw talent or ability but must still be taught what to do, not intimidated into doing it

Communicate clearly what you are looking for from the beginning

Be consistent with what you expect from your horse

Look for opportunities, when applicable, to let your horse operate on it’s own. Reward your horse if it tries even just a little

Understand that your prospect is going to make mistakes and that it is okay, it is part of the process.

Don’t be afraid to go back to square one. Always go back to what your mount understands and build from there.

Making a finished horse is not a race because all horses don’t progress through training at the same rate

Time will do the trick. Every horse needs adequate time under saddle to gain the confidence to do it’s job on it’s own

Let’s take the next featured horse for an example. Pictured below is a 2 year old filly by Teelusified and out of Arabesque Ciscos Rosebud. She will be a Western Pleasure/All Around Horse when she is broke, but for now, she is still considered a prospect. She has a natural desire to go very slowly and have a low neck, but I can not rely on her natural inclination as a substitute for training. If I work with her natural inclination and show her how to accurately use it, we may have a winner. If I don’t, it will lead to problems in the future.

Here I am loping the filly around in circles. She started off loping forward and after a half circle, she began to become quite hollow. The filly doesn’t know how to carry herself at any gait as she is still very young and green in her training, so it is inappropriate to chastise her for what she doesn’t know. Instead I simply bring her back to square #1 and remind her to lift her front end by elevating her shoulders and off we go again!

The key to making a broke horse from the first day is to show your horse precisely where you want him to be and how he is supposed to get to that position. Once you have done that, don’t be afraid to turn your horse loose to make the mistake. If you are consistent in putting your horse in the correct position without making a fuss about it, your horse will grow confident at it’s job!

If you lack the knowledge or confidence to train your horse for the western discipline of your choice, purchasing a finished horse will be the best option for you. Finished horses on the African continent are not very numerous, so be prepared to invest in importing a proven horse in your desired discipline that can teach you and make your experience riding western an enjoyable experience.